Deep-pocketed alumni with generous school spirit have for years seen their donations commemorated by having their names formally attached to college coaching positions, especially in football.

That phenomenon arrived in Michigan last week, and love or hate it, it's not going away.

The University of Michigan's regents on Thursday approved a deal in which a $10 million endowment from an alumnus will include renaming the head football coach position as the "J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Football Coach."

Brady Hoke's job title gets that formal moniker starting March 1.

His colleagues' jobs may soon have similar names of donors, following a common trend in the Ivy League and at an increasing number of other universities.

"We likely will be doing this with other coaching positions," said UM athletics director David Brandon.

"I anticipate you'll see more and more of this throughout college sports as a logical way to provide recognition (to major donors)."

He declined to disclose details, but Brandon did confirm that he's been contacted about other possible endowments and coaching job names since the Harris family deal was announced Feb. 17.

Earnings from the endowment will cover at least a portion of Hoke's $300,000 base salary. His total compensation topped $4.1 million last season, including bonuses, media appearance fees and other money, according to USA Today's annual college football salary database. Not all is paid by the university.

COURTESY OF J. IRA HARRIS

J. Ira Harris, whose foundation made the $10 million gift to UM, is a 1959 graduate of the university.

The $10 million comes from the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Foundation.

Ira Harris, 75, graduated from UM in 1959, and the football team's locker room and a suite at Michigan Stadium are named for his family because of past donations.

Brandon and his staff first suggested the idea of endowing and naming the coaching job a couple of years ago, Harris said.

"This seemed like an intriguing thing," Harris said.

Brandon said he and Chrissi Rawak, senior associate athletic director for development, came up with the naming convention.

"When we were talking to them about the magnitude of a gift of $10 million, we wanted to come up with a special, meaningful way to recognize (their support)," Brandon said. "(The position naming) seemed to resonate with them."

The idea wasn't radical. Brandon's own formal job title is the Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics.

Harris said he has been on UM's endowments investment committee for more than two decades, and serves the university in other advisory roles. He and his wife are on the steering committee for the university's $4 billion Victors for Michigan fundraising campaign.

"We've always had the belief a strong athletics program leverages the great academic strengths of the university. It really keeps the alumni involved," he said. "I hope it leads to more support in this capital campaign, and we can get other people to step up for other coaching positions."

"Once it gets started, then everybody starts doing it. Managers are great imitators," said Brian Goff, an economics professor specializing in sports at Western Kentucky University.

Endowments also are a way to offset departmental spending that otherwise might be criticized, he said, because large football and basketball programs are essentially "marrying a professional sports entity to a university."

"Endowments are a means of trying to put a sort of better public relations banner on it," he said.

A Michigan man

Harris said he returns to Ann Arbor for games and investment committee meetings.

He and his family's donations over the years have funded student scholarships, professorships, named chairs, buildings, facilities, medical research, a sports journalism fellowship and a center for the study of corporate finance.

The Bronx-born Harris, who entered UM at age 16 and graduated at 20, joined Granbery Marache and Co., the predecessor of Chicago-based Blair and Co., in 1961 as a securities salesman.

He was hired by Salomon Bros. in 1968, and in 1988 became a senior partner at New Orleans-based Lazard Freres & Co. He launched his financial consulting firm in 1998.

While Harris will get his family's name on the coaching position — a formal name realistically expected to be used only in official university communications — his money doesn't buy influence: Whenever there's a coaching change, he doesn't get a say in the new hire because of the donation.

It "does not provide any access or influence as it related to personnel decisions," Brandon said.

A few good donors

Brandon is seeking more donors like Harris because of the need for money. Coaching naming rights are another way for athletics departments to generate cash, he said.

"What's taking off is the need for fundraising. All of our (Big Ten athletics) departments crave capital to build facilities to compete at the highest level," Brandon said. "All of these departments are out trying to maximize the opportunity to raise funding support. As you're thinking about the inventory of recognition opportunities, it's only natural to think about endowing positions."

UM's budget for its 31 sports programs in the current fiscal year ending June 30 is estimated at $146.4 million in revenue and $137.5 million in spending, for a projected $8.9 million surplus.

The Harris endowment will be invested as part of the university's wider $8.4 billion endowment, which is a pool of about 7,800 separate endowments known as the University Endowment Fund.

Endowment distributions in fiscal 2013 were about $276 million.

Raising revenue

Since Brandon's hiring as athletics director in 2010, the department has sought to modernize itself in a corporate fashion as it looks to raise money in the face of increasing operational expenses.

The department, which has drawn criticism for raising ticket prices and creating other revenue streams from fans, has received very high-profile donations and engaged in some of Michigan's largest capital projects.

The athletics department and business school are splitting $200 million pledged to the university in September by Stephen Ross, a 1962 UM graduate whose cumulative $313 million given is the most from anyone in school history.

The money will be used to pay for capital projects on what's now known as the Stephen M. Ross Athletic Campus.

The regents in November approved a $6 million plan to build an 18,000-square-foot operations center to move into one building most of the athletic department's behind-the-scenes support work, such as maintenance shops, offices, laundry, shipping and receiving and equipment storage.

The regents in May approved a $13.5 million field hockey stadium and team center, along with smaller projects such as $2.55 million to replace grass at the baseball and softball fields with synthetic turf.

Other projects green-lighted by in recent years include $72 million in improvements, repairs and expansion of Crisler Center; $16 million in renovations for Yost Ice Arena; and a $226 million renovation of Michigan Stadium that was completed in 2011.

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